A thief's removal of a wallet from the pocket of the owner is very common among men, and theft of a wallet from a purse is more common among women rather than taken of a purse. One reason for the selectivity of not removing a purse is that current fashion has dictated the wearing of purses with shoulder straps thus giving the wearer more leverage to resist someone taking the entire purse as well as more time to take a firm grip on the purse and/or strap. To combat the loss of wallets there have been presented several devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,930,249 discloses a wallet anti-theft device which is activated by a photo cell receiving light when the wallet is drawn from the pocket or purse. The photo cell activates a circuit in an oscillating manner which in turn activates an audio producing device which alerts the owner to the attempt of theft of the wallet.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,080,595 discloses a wallet alarm device which is attached by a flexible chain to the billfold. When the attempt is made to take the wallet from the pocket or purse, the flexible chain is extended a given amount and then it activates the audio alarm system. The device is also provided with an on/off switch so the owner does not set off the alarm when removing the wallet for his own purposes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,090,183 discloses yet another alarm device which utilizes a spring clip to hold a wallet within the device and utilizes a mechanical switch to activate the alarm. The mechanical switch attaches to the lining of the pocket or the purse and when the attempt is made to remove the wallet, the wallet is removed from the mechanical switch thereby activating the alarm. The device has a control lever which permits the owner to release the spring clip holding the billfold against the device so that it may be removed without activating the alarm. The device also has an on/off switch for activating the circuit of the alarm. All three of these devices utilize the small batteries common to calculators, digital watches, and the like.
The disadvantages of a current device discussed above lies is generally the cumbersome nature of the device itself. In the device disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,090,183 the wallet and the alarm system are one and the same and is most probable that the would-be thief would feel the device in the attempt to remove the wallet which might dissuade him from doing it anyway. The device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,930,249 is in one outer wall of the wallet and the would-be thief might be able to detect that there was something other than a wallet involved. Also, its quite possible that in removing the wallet, he could cover, by accident, the access to the photo electric cell and of course prevent the device from working. The device in U.S. Pat. No. 4,080,595, part of which is clipped to the wallet, might indicate to the would be thief that the wallet is attached to something and this would of course this would be a deterrent in itself.